PC Magazine - 09.2019

Dealing With

Ransomware

YOUR COMMENTS

READER INPUT

Taxpayers should be outraged. You can bet that’s

WKHPRQH\XVHGWRSD\R̆WKHFURRNV

—YouWishYou Knew

It’s not so much that the taxpayers’ money is

going to people who don’t deserve it as that their

leaders are investing in the next crime’s

development and deployment. I sure have

sympathy for the situation they’re in, but paying

WKHUDQVRP¶VDFULPHLWVHOIVRPHWKLQJOLNH

UDFNHWHHULQJRUSURPRWLQJFULPLQDOHQWHUSULVH

—Dave Nadir

So I have a drive that’s disconnected. Can I press

Windows reset to wipe and restore the computer?

$QGKRZZRXOG,NQRZLIP\EDFNXSLVVDIH"

Maybe they infected me months ago. Maybe we

VKRXOGFDOO/LDP1HHVRQWR¿QGWKHP

—JP Farnsworth

Max Eddy gave compelling reasons to not pay the

ransom demanded. Fine. But what if a concern

such as, say, the launch console in an ICBM silo

absolutely, positively needs to have its systems

ZRUNLQJDJDLQDQGSURQWR"7KHQZKDWGRHV0D[

Eddy suggest the concerned do?

,IWKH\SD\LW¶VXQFHUWDLQWKHFURRNVZLOOXQORFN

their system, as Max said. But if they don’t pay,

KRZVRRQRUHYHQOLNHO\FDQWKH\JHWWKHLUV\VWHP

ZRUNLQJDJDLQ"

—Zinc_Foil_Hat_Wearer

7DFNOLQJUDQVRPZDUH
can be confusing and,
on a city-wide scale,
dangerous. Last
month. security expert
Max Eddy argued that
no matter what, you
should never pay a
ransomware
scammer. Some of our
readers had other
ideas.